@inproceedings{36b316b8702a4dd3a5150c3bc7ac21b7,
title = "The Role of Critical Zone Observatories in Critical Zone Science",
abstract = "The US National Science Foundation (NSF) has pioneered an integrated approach to the study of Earth's Critical Zone by supporting a network of Critical Zone Observatories (CZOs). The CZOs are intensively studied and monitored sites with a focus on a range of Critical Zone processes that are well represented at the various sites. The initial network (beginning in 2007) consisted of 3 CZOs, expanded to 6 in 2009, and is currently expanding to a total of 10 in 2014. The investment in financial and human resources into the CZOs has enabled a range of new scientific investigations that were not accessible under traditional funding mechanisms, and this is leading to novel and exciting advances in scientific understanding of a fundamentally important part of the Earth system.",
keywords = "Anthropocene, CZO network, Critical Zone, Critical Zone Observatories, Watershed",
author = "Timothy White and Susan Brantley and Steve Banwart and Jon Chorover and William Dietrich and Lou Derry and Kathleen Lohse and Suzanne Anderson and Anthony Aufdendkampe and Roger Bales and Praveen Kumar and Dan Richter and Bill McDowell",
note = "Funding Information: The CZOs – whether funded by the US NSF, the European Commission or similar entities in France, Germany, Australia, China, or other nations – uniquely address the challenge of understanding terrestrial life{\textquoteright}s support system. Of all the environmental observatories and networks, the CZOs are the only ones to tightly integrate ecological and geological sciences to combine with computational simulation, and to project from the deep geologic past to that of human life spans. As such, CZOs represent a unique opportunity to transform our understanding of coupled surface Earth processes and to address quantitatively the impacts of climate and land use change and the value of Critical Zone functions and services. Indeed, a fundamental concept applied from ecological economics is that the CZ embodies natural capital as a means of production to support flows of materials, energy, genetic information, and human population over time. ",
year = "2015",
doi = "10.1016/B978-0-444-63369-9.00002-1",
language = "English (US)",
isbn = "9780444633699",
series = "Developments in Earth Surface Processes",
publisher = "Elsevier",
pages = "15--78",
editor = "Chris Houser and Giardino, {John R.}",
booktitle = "Developments in Earth Surface Processes, 2015",
}